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If you take space exploration and anything to do with preventing or lowering suffering (eg stopping climate change or curing cancer or eliminating hunger) off the table, what’s at the top of your list as a worthwhile civilizational ambition?
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usually when I think of civilizational ambitions they're enabling technologies for "whatever people come up with", which is maybe against the spirit of the prompt. more & cheaper energy, "true" nanotech, longevity, next-gen computing substrates...all enabling tech.
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what to actually DO with it all...is a weird question. maybe something like "explore all possible evolutionary paths, as a game"? Be a tiger. Be a whale. Be species that don't exist yet. In simulation or with some kind of physical backup.
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This is why I didn’t ask about enabling technologies. They’re not the hard part. They’re just the uncontrolled part; some mix of luck, historical path dependence, various contingencies, and right talent in the right place at the right time Like space program seed was Nazi V2s
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